Transparency

A classified war powers report won't do it. A formal, public explanation of the facts and legal justifications is legally required thanks to Congress’ having recently passed…

To ensure the FOIA is not weaponized and used as an instrument of secrecy, Congress should reform the statute to mirror how the deliberative process privilege is treated in the…

The so-called deliberative process privilege allows federal agencies to redact internal policy debates, but it is often abused.

Key Legal Questions, With Preview of a New Research Database

The ad hoc release of OLC opinions raises more fundamental questions about the role of the OLC and the public’s right to know how the executive branch interprets the law.

Much of Washington is fixated for varying reasons on the release of the report from Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s Inspector General, on the origins of the FBI’s…

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse writes that there is a dual problem with the Supreme Court: not only the web of special-interest, secret donor influence surrounding it; but an extraordinary…

A brief overview of some of the bills in question, including the most important piece of anti-kleptocracy legislation the U.S. has ever seen,

For more than three years, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University have been litigating a series of Freedom of Information…

Former Department of Defense official (OSD) Luke Hartig critiques General Counsel Paul Ney's recent speech on the framework governing US military operations.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has prosecuted the Russia investigation by bringing charges against a number of former Trump campaign officials and their associates, and against…

The U.S. Supreme Court has reversed a half-century of precedent on citizens’ rights to know what their government is doing, by making it more difficult for the public to probe…